Digital image capturing devices sense and capture an image represented by digital information bits. The images may be stored, printed out, and even transferred to other devices. Because of their digital nature, the captured images may be freely transmitted, and may even be transmitted multiple times and to multiple destinations.
Prior art cameras typically transmit images by connecting to a computer. Images are downloaded from the camera to the computer. Alternatively, the camera may be coupled to a docking station connected to the computer. During communications the prior art camera acts as a slave device, with the computer controlling the downloading process. Therefore, an image transfer according to the prior art typically is a one-way transmission from the image capturing device to a computer for storage, transmission, printing, etc. A prior art camera cannot independently establish and regulate a communications session.
In an alternative prior art approach, the camera may be connected to a printer via cable and the camera may download images to the printer. The images are not stored in the printer, although the printer may function as an intermediary and may pass images to an associated computer.
In yet another prior art approach, images may be transferred to other devices using an infrared (IR) link.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for improvement to image capturing devices.